This week, Supervisor John Foust (D-Dranesville) and local bicycling advocates officially unveiled the approximately 80 new signs marking the best bike routes to get to different destinations in the community.

The best routes for bikes are “not always obvious,” Foust said. “But if you follow the signs, you can be assured that you will get there.”

The signs direct riders on the safest routes to places like the McLean Community Center, the Washington & Old Dominion Trail and the McLean station on the Silver Line, keeping them off major thoroughfares like Dolley Madison Boulevard (Va. 123) as much as possible.

McLean is the first place in the county to have these wayfinding signs installed, but Foust said he expects they will be in Tysons Corner as it redevelops, as well as other areas of the county over time.

Dennis Frew, a McLean resident who served on the McLean Pedestrian and Bicycle Task Force that recommended the signs, helped map out the routes. He previously worked on the McLean sections of the county’s bike route map along with other members of Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling.

“I’ve been riding in McLean for over 30 years,” Frew said. “I would ride my bike around and explore different things, trying to figure out what connects where.”

Frew said he also has been working with the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce to make McLean’s business district more bike-friendly.

“Right now, there are almost no bike racks in McLean,” he said.

But the chamber has obtained commitments from at least a half-dozen businesses to install bike racks, he said.

The McLean signs were paid for with revenue from the county’s commercial and industrial tax, which is used solely for transportation. But, Frew noted, there hasn’t been much other funding available for bicycling-related projects in the last few years.

“Hopefully, this new transportation bill will provide some new funds,” he said.